


Over The Edge

by justlikedaylightsavingstime



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Cas feeling guilty, Cas screwed up and he knows it, Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Flying, Gabe hates clouds, Gabe trying to comfort him, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Season/Series 07, and a little angst, because who doesn't love beekeeper!Cas, but they're more in the background, except of course it doesn't end well, it's a little silly in places, possibly beware of spoilers, slight mention of bees, spn_reversebang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-26
Updated: 2015-01-26
Packaged: 2018-03-09 05:07:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3237443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justlikedaylightsavingstime/pseuds/justlikedaylightsavingstime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Castiel wants is to forget. All Gabriel wants is to make his brother happy again. But how to cheer up a guilt-ridden seraph?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over The Edge

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was written for the [2014 SPN Reversebang Challenge](http://spn-reversebang.livejournal.com/). It was inspired by [chef-geekier](http://chef-geekier.livejournal.com/)’s utterly adorable piece, [Keeping Watch](http://chef-geekier.livejournal.com/75614.htm) (you should totally go check it out before you read this). I was too cute for words and I couldn’t have asked for a better piece.
> 
> Also, apart from my wonderful artist I need to give a big shout-out to the mods. Especial big hugs to my beta (who shall remain nameless) for being an amazing human being and kicking me into line, getting rid of all the rubbish and putting up with endless questions at ridiculous hours. She also came up with the title and about 95% of the summary as my brain just wasn’t working. (Although she is to blame for the removal of a puppy and some roses from the fic, so sometimes she is just pure evil.)
> 
> You can also read this fic on my [LJ account](http://roastspud.livejournal.com/10254.html).
> 
>  **Fic Title:** Over The Edge  
>  **Author:** **Fandom/Genre:** SPN, Fluff and Angst/Family/Drama  
>  **Pairing(s):** Gen  
>  **Rating:** G/PG  
>  **Word Count:** 5,161  
>  **Warnings:** Nothing more serious than a few cuss words.  
>  **Summary:** All Castiel wants is to forget. All Gabriel wants is to make his brother happy again. But how to cheer up a guilt-ridden seraph?
> 
> Expect a little angst, a fair bit of fluff, hurt/comfort themes and brotherly love. It’s set around Season 7 (just before Emanuel appears in 7.17), although I don’t believe that there’s actually any explicit spoilers. I think it’s pretty canon compliant, except for the fact that Gabe is alive (yay). The ending's a little sad.

Whoever said that clouds were made of marshmallows needed to be smothered in swathes of honey and left to the mercy of some particularly sharp-toothed bears. They weren’t even all that misty. If anything, clouds were more like cobwebs. Long tendrils of sticky cobwebs which attached themselves to anything at the lightest of touches. And they left every inch of you with that uncomfortable damp sensation. It was as if you’d just been licked to death by a hundred puppies (Gabe knew from experience that that was nowhere near as pleasant as it sounded).

Of course all the other angels had loved their little cloudy perch. This is where the (to put it dramatically) heartbroken went to pour out their tears onto the hapless little apes. Every truly serious piece of angel business happened here. It wasn’t uncommon for an angel to stroll (or more accurately fight) their way along a cloud or two before picking a spot and staring through little gaps into the dark chaos below. Gabriel had always assumed it was the ‘well it could be worse, I could be a human’ realization that tended to be so comforting. He wasn’t so sure any more.

He’d even caught Anael strumming her harp up here at one point. Angels never could quite grasp the irony of a cliché. It was probably why they’d chosen fluffy cloud land for their melancholic self-pity parties in the first place.

Gabe hatred of it was no secret. It was all so…white. And grey and drab and serious. The only reason he had ever set foot in such a dreary, soul sucking place was to laugh at the various pensive expressions of his overdramatic brethren. Michael’s face had probably been his favorite, with its little frown and puckered lips. Although after he’d seen how hard Luci’s fall had hit his eldest brother, Gabe hadn’t had the heart to tease any more. There were plenty of other despondent angels to torment after all. But even the enjoyment found in others’ misery wasn’t enough to entice Gabe onto the clouds more than once or twice a millennium. And yet here he was, feet being sucked down into the all-consuming quagmire as he stomped his way around, bemoaning his bad luck and cursing that annoying little soft spot he’d been harboring for certain members of his family. It really was a curse. In fact, he’d had to drown a few politicians in puddles (well, more like rivers) of their constituents’ tears before he could convince himself that he wasn’t going soft.

It was unusual to see the place so barren, miles and miles of swirling cloud with nothing but one little beige bundle to taint the view. With no other angels to break up the horizon, the sheer emptiness of the scene sent a shiver rattling down Gabe’s spine. All the other angels avoided this spot now, probably with good reason. Well, all except for one.

Gabe waded his way over to the little beige lump, the one he affectionately tended to refer to as Cas. The dejected angel looked even more miserable than Gabriel, and that was quite the feat considering that the archangel was currently stuck in his own personal hell-on-heaven.

This had been going on for months. Castiel had picked a moping spot and refused to leave. Just sat there, looking smaller than ever with his legs cradled in his arms and his wings slumped at a dejected angle. Stubborn little seraph. Even his suit had somehow managed to reach a whole new level of scruffiness from its rough treatment. As far as Gabe could tell, the silly angel hadn’t moved a muscle (except for when Gabe goaded him into it) in all this time. He hardly even blinked. The entirety of the energy behind Castiel’s piercing eyes was unfalteringly focused on that one insignificant gap in the clouds. Gabe hadn’t been allowed close enough to identify what Cassie was so enraptured by, but he’d bet his right wing that it had Winchester written all over it. Nothing more attractive than an angel drowning in his own melancholy, Gabe thought with a roll of his eyes.

The first time he had followed Cas up here he had made the mistake of attempting to talk some sense into him, which perhaps wasn’t his brightest masterstroke. It hadn’t gone so well. You would think that somewhere in the infinite cosmos there would be a magical cure for removing a lollypop from one’s hair. Apparently not. It was a personal affront really. He was an angel, a freaking archangel at that, and he hadn’t been able to remove one lousy (if clingy) lollypop form his luscious locks. He may even have had to zap himself down to a certain baby Winchester’s hotel room to ‘borrow’ some shampoo (if anyone knew about effective shampooing it had to be Sam). The main benefit had been that his hair had taken on a distinctly fruity aroma, ‘good enough to eat’ as one particularly cute waitress had assured him. Although, the major downside was that despite Gabe’s age and power he apparently still had absolutely no way of getting through to his lost seraph. In all his millennia of existence Gabriel had never felt quite so impotent and frustrated.

So since then he’d kept his distance. Just kinda crouched nearby, staring off into the empty space with a little shudder. It definitely didn’t feel right up here without at least some of the other angels around. So he’d attempted to distract himself. It hadn’t taken him long to get bored of cloud slides (they were too sticky to be any fun anyway). He’d even resorted to building some big misty friends out of the obnoxious clouds. Although silent clouds would never cut it for a self-professed attention whore. Enough finally became enough when he found himself taking to his new cloud buddies. A trickster could only take so much solitary confinement before he had a major breakdown.

No matter Gabe’s never-ending reserves of patience, saintly temper and astonishing ability to martyr himself, no one could expect him to remain in that horrible fluffy place indefinitely. Instead he went off to do his own thing (impregnating gods, throwing miscreants into volcanos, your average everyday activities) and just popped up every so often to check on his moping little brother.

By the fifth time the archangel had returned he had decided that it was a good a time as any to offer Cas the benefit of his extensive and superior wisdom. Unfortunately the younger angel had just given a barely imperceptible shrug, not even removing his eyes from his peep hole. That was when Gabe really started to get worried.

Since then he’d had a whole host of ideas, each one more outlandish then the last, for how best to cheer up his glum brother. The mountain of cuddly toys hadn’t been his smartest masterstroke. Apparently even heavenly clouds had their loading limit, which seemingly consisted of about a million brightly colored stuffed toys. The clouds had let out a gentle sigh, vaguely reminiscent of a deflating airbed, before completely giving way and releasing their burden to hurtle down onto the earthly plane. Oops. Stupid useless clouds. The surface of the earth mostly consisted of water anyway, he was sure they’d just make a quiet little harmless splash into one of the giant oceans and happily float off on their own little adventures. They wouldn’t really cause any long lasting damage. Maybe. Cas had only given him the briefest of glares before settling back down to his favorite past time once again. Never before in his life had Gabe ever felt more like banging his head against a brick wall. All his other ideas ended up being just as useless, if not downright dangerous, and Gabe was getting pretty close to the end of his tether.

The beehive had proved to be slightly more of a success (at least Gabe could say with 100% certainty that this particular idea hadn’t caused a single casualty). It had been worth it just for the gleam in Cassie’s eyes as he had visibly perked up for all of two seconds. At least until his eyes had glazed over again and that haunted look had returned in full force. The stupid little seraph was going to end up doing something really dumb if he didn’t book his ideas up and stop moping around. Gabriel could just feel it. So this time he was done waiting. Father knows he’d been impressively patient for the past few months, milling around waiting for Castiel to get his ass in gear. Now was the time for action.

Mind made up, he attached his most mischievous grin to his face and silently snuck his way over to Cas. Despite having become slightly more acclimated to the vicious pull of the cloud, he still found himself holding back curses as he waded through it. This was his last chance, it had to work.

***

Castiel wasn’t brooding. That’s not something an angel could really do. Angels pondered, they considered, they mulled. They didn’t brood, no matter how many times Gabriel accused him of it.

Whenever the elder angel appeared, Cas found himself having put up with an irritatingly unbreakable stare piercing through the back of his head, or an even more intrusive glob of cloud bouncing off his shoulder. Each time he merely shrugged it off, sending one of his trademark death glares back if it was a particularly harsh throw. But apart from that his eyes rarely strayed from the little swirling hole he’d made for himself in the cloud, created at the perfect angle from which to study the Winchesters.

They didn’t have a use for him anymore, had made that crystal clear. But he still felt the need to watch over them. They were never going to forgive him for all the awful, awful things he’d done. The worst part was that Cas couldn’t even really completely remember what he’d done, it was all still kind of fuzzy. Every time he dived in to try and dig out the memories he only managed to pick out one or two confusing scraps. But he knew it was bad. Really bad. There was something to do with making deals Crowley, and ancient spells, but that was where the he started to struggle. Most of the mechanics were there, he just couldn’t grasp hold of the motivation behind his actions. It seemed so distant and warped, he just couldn’t get his head round it. He’d even searched through the deepest, darkest corners of his grace and come up blank. He had no idea why he’d done any of it. How had he got himself in a position that he’d consorted with Crowley and gone behind the backs of those he’d held dearest?

Cas blew a long sigh out across the fabric of his suit. Well it didn’t make much difference now anyway. Whatever it was he was paying the price, and was ready to do absolutely anything he could to try and redeem himself. Even if an eternity had to pass before he could complete his penance. It’s not like he had anything better to do, anywhere better to go. A few ideas tumbled round his head again and again on a loop, each one more drastic than the last. Not that it mattered anyway. Dean and Sam didn’t want him. And what use was an existentially confused angel without an incentive to fall?

He’d ruined everything. So many of his brothers and sisters had died, because of him. And Father knows what Sam was going through right now. Everything he’d ever held dear had been trashed, incinerated down to ashes and death. He didn’t deserve to be an angel any more, should have been stripped of his feathers and thrown to the wolves. But that didn’t happen. In fact absolutely nothing had happened. He was just left alone up here in an endless state of limbo, with his sorrow tainted thoughts and his watching hole as he tried to figure out what he could possibly do to set the world to rights.

The only good thing that had happened in months had been the reappearance of Gabriel. Even that was beginning to wear thin, Castiel thought as he scraped more of the sticky cloud off his shoulder. All the other angels wanted him dead, all the ones he hadn’t killed at any rate. The only being in all of the universes who wasn’t ostracizing him happened to be the loudest most obnoxious angel in all of existence. And each of his attempts to cheer Castiel up had been worse than the last.

Not that he didn’t appreciate the thought, but having Gabriel buzzing around him didn’t exactly improve his mood. Particularly when all he could hear were the archangel’s childish screams as he flung himself down his slides. So Cas ignored his brother and sat and watched. And watched. And watched. Watched Dean Winchester spiraling down into his usual alcoholism. Watched as Sam collapsed at the seams. Watched as everything ‘went to shit’, as Dean would say, the ongoing mantra of ‘it’s all my fault’ burning through his head.

He’d long lost count of the number human days that had passed, they all blurred together anyway. Suffice to say Castiel had been perched unmoving on the cloud for an abnormally long time when Gabriel attempted to talk to him again.

Well, there wasn’t so much talking. There was a lot more pouncing and falling. One minute Cas was calmly staring out into the void. Next a massive mound of cloud had swept up behind him and thrown him straight through the hole, tumbling down head over feet. In the few heartbeats that it took Castiel to figure out what had happened, and process through the panic, he had felt a strong hand clamp onto his arm, and found himself being lifted up.

Castiel’s wings seemed to catch up before his brain, and quickly brushed themselves out behind him. Despite himself, he let out a little content sigh. It felt sooo good to have the wind buffering against his wings after all this time, blowing the proverbial (and some less proverbial) cobwebs away. Each upward draft was the most freeing feeling, brushing just the smallest fraction of his pain away.

Not willing to give in so easily he turned to fix Gabriel with an unimpressed glare, but couldn’t help returning the beaming angel’s smile just a little. Only Gabe would think pushing someone of a cloud would be a good way to help them work through their grief.

There was nothing stranger than being on this side of the clouds. Up above there only existed a calm silence and softly glowing whiteness. The human world seemed covered in darkness, only the odd shifting shadow distinguishable of the scene down below.

The untainted view from underneath the clouds was another story all together. Even the air buzzed with noise, with life. Each howl of the wind screeched through his ears. And not even the most staunch of his siblings could claim earth was anything but breathtakingly beautiful (and stealing an angel’s breath was no mean feat). The light of heaven peaked through the breaks in the cloud, settling a golden glow over everything and blessing everything underneath them.

“Finished with your brooding yet, Cassie?” Gabe’s voice left him sounding infuriatingly pleased for himself. It didn’t even falter under another one of Castiel’s frowns. “Well at least you’ve got to admit that the view from down here is waaaay better!”

“It is rather…revitalizing.” The younger angel couldn’t help admitting, letting out a small chuckle.

Gabriel was in his element down here, glorious pearly wings flashing out behind him as he tumbled and swooped, his hand still clutching his brother to him as they spun round together. It felt like a millennia since Cas had flown with another angel and he’d completely forgotten the tingling sense of completeness it could provide.

Eventually he shook himself free of Gabe’s grasp, turning to do a solo loop-the-loop. The smile on the archangel’s face this time was much less teasing and more genuine. Castiel pushed himself closer to his brother, moving into his space until they were face to face. He grasped Gabe’s hands, ignoring the look of surprise on his face, and twined their fingers together.

They held each other’s gazes, only the beat of their wings disrupting the stilling air around them. At moments like this he could almost feel the way their grace thrummed and flowed between them. Not that it could completely nullify the searing guilt flowing through his veins, but at least it helped to sooth it.

“You know this’ll all be over soon? Time will pass, the world will heal and everyone will forget. You’re not gonna feel like this forever.” Gabe’s voice was surprisingly quiet for him. It had been a long time since Cas had ever heard him speaking with such a serious tone.

Cas just shook his head. He tended to defer to Gabe in emotional matters since it was the way he had been ‘brought up’. Gabe had practically raised him from being a hatchling, leaving behind the kind of bond that lasted longer than time itself. However, this was one instance where the archangel wouldn’t be able to help. Over the past few short years Castiel felt like he had grown up, grown old, in ways that he hoped Gabriel never would. The archangel would never understand what was going through his head right now. Would never understand that this could never be made right.

At the headshake, he saw something flash across Gabe’s eyes, something unsure, something worried. But it was quickly hidden by a malevolent smirk. “Oh come on fluffy, you’ve got me, what more can you need.”

Castiel’s scowl only made Gabe giggle more. “I told you not to call me that! I have not been fluffy for many millennia.”

“Oh but you are fluffy. You’ll always be fluffy to me!” One of Gabe’s hands untangled itself from Cas’ to bury itself in his fluttering feathers, playing light touches cross the tips. His teasing tone took on a softer quality. If it hadn’t been so comforting, Cas might have commented on the transparency of his brother’s plan. Gabriel never had been one for subtlety. “I can still remember that first day you were dumped into my arms. This little bundle, so still with those serious soul searching blue eyes. Such a tiny thing. And yet you had the most massive wing’s I’d ever seen on a cherub. So soft and smooth to the touch. Within minutes of me grooming them out for you you’d manage to have them looking like a haystack again. Sticking up every which way. Who was it that first called you fluffy again?”

“Samandriel.” Castel’s wings drooped ashamedly behind him as he choked on the syllables.

Gabe quickly realized his mistake, and the seraph could almost see the cogs going behind his eyes as he desperately started to cast around for ways to bring Castiel’s mind back onto happier things. Unsurprisingly he ended up merely resorting to his usual trick, joking. “Fluffy was the cutest. It has a certain ring. Fluffy. Fluffy. Fluffy. Fluffy. Fluffy.”

It worked a little. Cas could at least appreciate the sentiment behind his brother’s words, and just didn’t have it in him to resist the ridiculous archangel. He allowed a shadow of a smile brush around the corners of his mouth before pulling away and attempting to gather a more serious expression together. The element of surprise was the key here. Without warning he quickly dove forward, slamming his palm against Gabe’s stomach, yelling ‘tag, you’re it’ before swooping off with a powerful twist of his wings.

It was a testament to how much Castiel had changed over the past few years of separation from Gabe that the older angel wasn’t expecting this move and was left floating through the air with his mouth hanging open. Cas couldn’t help yelling a comment over his shoulder on how the archangel’s age was obviously catching up to him.

“You little bastard!” Gabe exclaimed before bounding off across the sky to catch up with the little trouble maker.

***

Neither of them knew how long they had been dancing across the sky. Pirouetting and laughing and swooping and spinning. It hadn’t taken Gabe long to catch up and reap his revenge, and the game of tag had quickly evolved into ‘copy me’ and countless other games neither of them had played in centuries. His time with the fledglings had always been Gabe’s favorite part of heaven, and Cas’ playful mood had lightened the load of his chest as past memories drifted across his mind. They’d both get out of this intact, just you wait and see. Every new grin that flashed across Castiel’s face was a testament to the resilience of angels, there was always hope.

Eventually Castiel let out a yawn that Gabe could practically feel vibrating through his bones. Angels didn’t get tired per-say, but if they exerted themselves too much they had a state of pseudo-sleep state that would help them build their energy back up. And damn did it look like Cassie needed it.

So with the bone rattling yawn and the little droop sneaking into the seraph’s wings, Gabe bundled him up in his arms. He carefully avoided Cas’ still fluttering wings, flying upward as straight as an arrow, throwing in a fast spin just for good measure. He soon saw the clouds rising up to meet them. Gently pulled one of his arms from under his brother, he swung it out to protect both their heads from the damnable cloud tendrils as he forced his way back through.

With little more than a clammy dampness they found themselves on the other side. He gently laid Castiel down on his side, trying to pick a particularly spongy patch. Soundlessly he slipped behind him, unconsciously humming an old Enochian lullaby that he hadn’t thought about in eons. It had been so long since they’d done this, since he’d cuddled with his little charge or taught him how to fly or even show him how to groom his amazing obsidian wings by himself.

The change of pace today had been nice. He didn’t know what good it had done for Castiel, he could only hope, but at least it was soothing his old grace. At heart Gabe was one of the most social of angels. This was where he was supposed to be. Absentmindedly Gabe found himself brushing a hand through the Cas’ messy hair, softly stroking a line down his neck and back and fondly straightening any out of place feathers.

Unfortunately it wasn’t long before Castiel started to rouse himself, shuffling his shoulders and blinking his eyes open. Gabe grinned down at him, happy to see Cas’ sure smile in return. Something seemed to have changed. The melancholic slump had disappeared from his shoulders. Just from the glint in Cas eye and the set of his posture Gabe could tell that Cas had finally managed to find a way to get over his current slump, or at least found the hope that there would be such a solution. It could only be a good thing. Or at least that’s what he thought before Cas opened his mouth.

“I’ve made my decision Gabriel. I know now what I’m supposed to do. I want you to make me human.” The even tone of voice did nothing to stop a cold shiver creeping down Gabe’s back. No. He had to be kidding. There is no way that Cas could be proposing to…to…he couldn’t even think it, let alone say it.

In his utter denial, Gabe couldn’t find himself clever enough to respond with anything more than “What?!”

“It should be my punishment, and my salvation. I don’t deserve my wings anymore. And as a human I won’t have to remember any of the unforgivable things I’ve done.” The stupid little angel was so earnest, so righteous. So naïve. The whole thing made Gabe’s metaphorical blood boil and his metaphorical heart sink.

“Are you crazy? I thought, I thought I’d helped. I thought I’d shown you there was something worth living for!” How dare Castiel even consider this? How could he even think of taking away the last thing Gabriel had to cling on to? It was selfish, and horrible and Gabe didn’t even want to think about it. This one action would be enough to leave him well and truly alone.

“You did help, Gabe. You helped me figure out what I needed to do. And nobody else could have given me such a brilliant send off.” He grabbed Gabe’s hand, his piteous voice almost enough to break through the archangel’s anger. “Gabe, please. I don’t want to feel like this any more!”

“You need penitence? You need retribution? Then go join a bloody convent! Wiping your memory and pretending to be a human is not going to do anything to right any wrongs.” Despite knowing that anger wasn’t going to help anyone right now, Gabe couldn’t help himself. If there was one thing an archangel didn’t deal well with it was frustration and a lack of control. It didn’t normally yield good results. In this particular instance it resulted in Gabe’s emotions blowing up into a stream of yelling and cursing as he waved his arms around as menacingly as he could.

Cas just took it, eyes fixed unblinkingly on Gabe’s face, barely blinking as the shorter angel berated him.

And Gabriel found his heart shrinking as he realized that this was one fight he couldn’t hope to win.

***

“You can’t run away from this Castiel!” The emphatic wave of his hands was just so… Gabriel. And Castiel found himself loving him for it. It didn’t make it any easier to do what he had to do, but it did mean that he had his favorite brother to help him through to the end. And that had to count for something.

“This is something I need to do Gabriel.” A deep breath failed to steady Cas. There was no room for weakness here, he had to show Gabe that he meant what he said down to the very deepest essence of his grace. “And either you help me or I’ll find another angel who will. And you know exactly what any other angel will do the minute they set eyes on me.” And there, he had played his trump card. He knew it wasn’t fair, but then neither was life. His time on earth had been enough to show him that.

Gabe finally stilled his pacing, fixing Cas with a stare. The archangel knew when he’d been beaten.

“What am I going to do with you brother?” Castiel was slightly surprised to find a hand fixing on the back of his neck, pulling him forwards until his forehead was in contact with Gabe’s. Both of them stayed there for an eternity. As a rule, angels didn’t do physical contact, but surprisingly it didn’t feel all that foreign. Humanity had a way of creeping up on you, niggling into any cracks or holes in your grace and leaving its irreversible stamp.

For the first time, Cas could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. He’d been fighting them off for months. He didn’t deserve the right to mourn, to appreciate the release that only tears could bring. And yet here he was, finally opening the floodgates. He could feel from Gabe’s heaving breaths that he was having a similar struggle.

A light shove from Gabe sent Cas backward a step, closer to a hole in the cloud. After a slight wobble he straightened back up, not fighting the archangel’s hold as Gabe fixed one hand on Cas’ shoulder, the other a hand placed against his head. So this was it.

“You’re sure?” Under any other circumstances Cas would have broken as a shaky timbre infected the typical bravado of Gabriel’s voice. But not this time. He needed this. He was no good to anyone the way he was, he needed this fresh start. So he just gave a sad little nod, keeping his eyes fixed on his brother’s. He wouldn’t have to feel like this for much longer.

***

This was the worst idea in the history of ideas. What would Cas know about being human? He’d probably manage to get himself eaten by a tiger or kidnapped by a granny or something. Not to mention that he wouldn’t be able to access any of his powers while he was off playing human. And with the current chaos of heaven, who knew if Cassie would ever be able to get his wings back. The whole thing seriously freaked Gabe out. It went against every protective instinct he’d ever had.

The entire plan reeked of denial and failure. But there wasn’t another alternative. He couldn’t help thinking that it was his fault, taking Cas out today had obviously changed something in him. But it was too late for what ifs. The pair of them had dug a hole, and there was only one way out of it. Well you know what they say, no good deed fails to come back and bite you in the ass.

At least he could still keep his eye on the little seraph. Castiel wouldn’t be completely alone in the human world. And nobody knew better than Gabe the joy that could be found in escaping the fake sheen of heaven, hell he’d probably paved the way for Cassie’s stupidity.

Well, life as a trickster certainly wasn’t boring. He gently maneuvered Cas closer to the hole, pressing his fingers on his forehead. He made one last ditch attempt. Everything he would never be able to articulate was put behind those words. His regrets, his hopes, his worry. “You’re sure?”

The quiet nod nearly broke his heart. Steeling himself Gabe blinked for a few moments. “I love you brother.”

The words were so quiet that he was sure the wind had stolen them away.

Before Cas had chance to reply, Gabe had released the full force of his powers. It was amazing how it only took an instant to wipe away everything that defined an angel.

He turned his back, trying to escape from Cas’ screams as the seraph’s mind attempted to right itself without its angelic knowledge, and his body reacted to the painful hurtling towards earth. It was done.

In a blink the entire plane was empty. No one left to disturb the pure white expanse as it stretched off to the ends of the universe. The soft ‘plink’ of an angel tear crashing against the shifting white cloud was the only sign that anyone had ever been up there.

**Author's Note:**

> Here I go throwing in my usual shameless [tumblr](http://justlikedaylightsavingstime.tumblr.com/) plug. I'm doing the whole follow for a follow back thing :)


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